Dial a flight deposit

Cbrench87

First time post incoming! Me and my girlfriend booked a holiday to Bali totalling approx £5k. We paid £1300 deposit to secure the booking. Obviously with covid hitting everywhere hard, especially Indonesia, we had to cancel the booking. This year we tried to book a holiday to Maldives with a few days before in Dubai, we were quoted a price of £8k. From doing our own research we thought this was a little too steep for what we were asking for and thought we could get a better rate ourselves. We asked if we could use our £1300 towards the flight and maybe some of hotel costs. We’ve since been informed that we will need to spend £5k with them as this was the price of the original booking. I find all this very hard to believe and would like some advice. We used a reputable company to ease any doubts about losing money (which we did when booking previous holiday ourselves at the start of pandemic). However I know feel very angry that I’m tied in to spending £5k with a company that haven’t treated us particularly. Any ideas??? Thanks 

MATTR5

Did they give you a refund credit note?  Are there any Terms and Conditions shown on it? 

There may also be an expiry date on the Refund Credit Note when you can exchange for cash? 

There is CAA guidance on this 

eDicky

I read somewhere that Bali is now (or soon will be) accepting tourists in general.

Cbrench87

MATTR5 said:

Did they give you a refund credit note?  Are there any Terms and Conditions shown on it? 

There may also be an expiry date on the Refund Credit Note when you can exchange for cash? 

There is CAA guidance on this 

We were only ever told that they are holding our deposit until we book a long haul holiday with them which will have to be the same amount as original booking. So it isn’t a credit note. I find it hard to imagine I’m forced to pay them £5,000 now.. 

MATTR5

Hmmm it's not what's happened with any of the Tour Ops we sell - they've all had to issue refund credit notes for the amount held and thats it - but if they told you at the time and you agreed you may be stuck 
If you cancelled when flights were still going then maybe its something other than an RCN
Have a look at this thread as some good advice on there - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6121808/dial-a-flight-not-offering-refunds 
Ive always thought Dialaflight were decent so im hopeful you'll get a resolution 

sheramber

Did you cancel or did the holiday get cancelled?

Cbrench87

We had to take the original decision to cancel Bali as we knew the situation wasn’t going to get any better and the country wasn’t going to open for tourism (it still isn’t for UK). So the holiday wouldn’t have happened regardless. Dialaflight rep said we’ll have to have a ‘like for like’ holiday because they’ve told their auditors they are selling a £5k package to us. 

Hopefully it will be sorted eventually but unless I want a long drawn out battle I’m guessing we’ll begrudgingly book another holiday with them. For the final time 

onashoestring

If I have understood your situation correctly by cancelling the holiday yourselves , you were not entitled to a refund and although you had paid the deposit you still owed DIAL A Flight for the whole package.
 However rather than loose the whole amount when you cancelled , Dial A Flight offered the opportunity for you to rebook a holiday at a later date for the same price . 

If this is the case then you are stuck with the terms you agreed when you cancelled.